The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-01-12
Correspondence.
\ NUMEROUS DEPARTMENT.
What the Denizens of Blues Gulley
Think and Say About 1t.
BLUES GULLEY, n. G..

promised in my last/to tell your
readers some Of thethings said in
these parts of the/Departments in
Raleigh, by men who read the
papers and go up there to sell truck
and rabbits. Now that the home
stead and mortgage systems are in
force, many of the people down
here only have to work a little be-
tween April and October, the rest
of the year, when the weather will
allow, is spent at the grocery down
ut the fork of the road, talking poll
tics and telling yarns. 1t is true
that some of the tales are owe a
hundred years old and deserve to
be recorded as the traditions of the
fathers, but we all have to laugh
every time they are told. This is
no easy matter to a man OF sense,
and as some of us have heard tell of
new kind of bella chestnut bell
that the city people now have,
and that rings every time a man
tells an old tale or a lie, we are salt
ing down our rabbits in order to
buy one for mese parts the next
time {" trip is made to Raleigh.
But these five months of rest and
idleness give the people a good
chance to talk, and in talking poll
tics the Departments are often
brought up for review. The depart
ment known in the Almanacs as the
Department of Agriculture is the
one oftenest discussed, and as THE
PROGRESSIVE FARMER is an agricul-
tural journal and it's readers in other
parts are farmers, | suppose what is
said upon it by the inhabitants of
Blues Gulley will be read with some
interest. If [ understand the re-
marks made by our oldest and most
experienced people and our former
representative, (who got defeated
last time for voting for the Univer-
sity appropriation and is still mad
because he was persuaded to do so
with a promise of a seat in Con-
gress) the Department OF Agriculture
consists of twelve departments, viz:
the oyster department, the chemical
department, the immigration depart
ment, the guano department, the
exhibition department, the commits
%sioner, two clerks, the Board, the
viners or samplers, the Southern
Pines and DR.. Battle-with S42, 900
annual income to be divided between
these departments or just where
they think it will do the most good.
The Commissioner is described as
an old gentleman Of great dignity
and exceedingly we'll read in the
British Reviews and we'll posted in
English ~geneology and foreign poll
tics, but innocent of any knowledge
Of farming. Some have said that
they thought it strange that a man
SO far behind the present age should
have been selected as the head of
this great complicated business and
sc remote from subjects treated in
British Reviews. He has held on
we'll and made, with the Richmond
& Danville Railroad and Nh. Patrick,
a good show for the State in foreign
parts. He has a splendid office and
receives visitors Of distinction with
great and studied %politeness. There
is talk Of giving him a leave of
absence. It was said that he asked
for this for one Of his clerks a year
ago and asked the Board to appro-
pirate $4,000 to pay his expenses
in visiting London and treating
Queen Victoria, but some penurious
editor raised a howl about this and
neither the trip mort the appropriation
was made.
The sub-department of oysters
deserves consideration, if the re-
marks made in these parts are true.
1t is said that a United States ship
with a Lieutenant Winsome as
Captain and one of the innumerable
relatives of the President of the
University as clerk or assistant, with
a full crew and plenty of rations,
solid and llquid-is employed in
feeling the bottom of the sounds.
bays and rivers of Eastern North
Carolina to see where would be a
good place for planting and cult
waiting oysters, and his brief reports
run in this way: "Have found 1866.
900 acres in Pamlico Sound suitable
for oyster farming, If salt enouqh.
Have found SIS, 900 acres in Abe
marie Sound suited for oyster farm
ing, If suit enough Some of our
people who went down that way
once say that these sounds are fresh
water. and that OvStarS Ornwn in